Today, Foursquare is proud to announce our participation in the Network Advertising Initiative’s new “Precise Location Solution Provider Enhanced Standards.” Foursquare worked closely with the NAI over the past year to launch a working group focused on location data solution providers and to develop a series of enforceable standards to curb the inappropriate use of location data in the ecosystem.
“Foursquare has long had internal policies that restrict the use of our products around sensitive locations, and we have never sold precise location data for law enforcement or national security use cases,” said Liz Hein, Associate General Counsel for Product, Privacy and Compliance. “We are proud to have worked with the NAI to develop standards that companies in the industry can publicly choose to adhere to, highlighting those companies that are truly committed to promoting strong privacy practices.”
Key components of the Enhanced Standards include:
- Requiring participating members not use, allow the use of, sell, or share any information about device or user activity correlated to a known Sensitive Points of Interest. Sensitive POIs include:
- Places of religious worship
- Correctional facilities
- Places that may be used to infer an LGBTQ+ identification
- Places that may be used to infer engagement with explicit sexual content, material, or acts
- Places primarily intended to be occupied by children under 16
- Domestic abuse shelters, including rape crisis centers
- Welfare or homeless shelters and halfway houses
- Dependency or addiction treatment centers
- Medical facilities that cater predominantly to sensitive conditions, such as cancer centers, HIV/AIDS, fertility or abortion clinics, mental health treatment facilities, or emergency room trauma centers
- Places that may be used to infer refugee or immigrant status, such as refugee or immigration centers and immigration services
- Credit repair, debt services, bankruptcy services, or payday lending institutions
- Temporary places of assembly such as political rallies, marches, or protests, during the times that such rallies, marches, or protests take place
- Military Bases
- Prohibiting participating members from sharing precise location information for law-enforcement, national security, or bounty-hunting purposes, except as necessary to comply with a valid legal obligation.
- Requiring participating members to make a public commitment to upholding these Enhanced Standards and to go through an annual compliance assessment with NAI staff.
The NAI announced today that Cuebiq and Precisely PlaceIQ have also committed to follow new Enhanced Standards for Precise Location Information Solution Providers.
